Umbrella Man
by Maidenstear
Summary: "Neku, you're such an umbrella man." "I'm a what?"


Aneko: Well, hello there. The last time I did a fiction for The World Ends With You, it wasn't completely what I wanted it to be, but this time, I was recently inspired by a play I saw for a class, and this is the result. I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I do not own The World Ends With You.

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><p><strong>Umbrella Man<strong>

Neku Sakuraba sat on the ground next to the wall of the building covered in a colorful rainbow of graffiti, watching the many pairs of feet that passed by him on the street. Normally, he would have gotten strange looks for sitting on the ground by himself, wearing an expression like he would kill anyone who got near him. But that was normally. Dead kids who are invisible don't get stared at, and so he hunched his shoulders and looked even more murderous.

Neku's already present frown deepened to a dark scowl. He really couldn't get used to the concept of being dead. Not that he had ever done anything meaningful when he was alive, but he had been living his life. Who gave them the right to take that away from him?

Not to mention the weird business of reading people's thoughts. It felt so unnatural, like he was turning on hundreds of television sets at once and being unable to block out or turn off any of them. That girl said that she always felt like she was invading people's privacy when she read their minds. He didn't care about that. It just felt like he was leaving his own mind wide open when he did.

_Speaking of that girl, where is she? _Neku twisted a strand of his hair between his fingers. She had gone into one of the stores to shop. He hadn't wanted to, but she had pestered him until he had given in, sick of hearing her ask over and over.

"There's no time limit for today's mission anyways," she kept reminding him. "Just relax a little, would you?"

No, he had informed her, he would not "relax a little." It was a life or death situation they were in. No pun intended. He couldn't leave the mission in the hands of the other players. They might turn out to be incompetent idiots who screwed it up. She laughed at him, proceeding to walk into 104. She invited him to come with her. He swiftly declined. He had discovered previously that she was a pain to shop with. There was no telling how long she would spend browsing around, trying on something here and something there. So he opted to wait outside instead.

Neku sighed. She had already been gone for half an hour. It would be probably be a while yet. He pulled on his overly large purple headphones, taking comfort in the turbulent music that drowned out the street sounds around him. Drowned out the sounds of _people—_ laughter, feet scuffing pavement, music coming from the tinny speakers outside of a store. He drowned out…life.

He turned his music up a few more notches. The volume made his head vibrate strangely, but at the moment, he really didn't care. He leaned his head back against the graffiti covered wall and closed his eyes. If he could possibly fall asleep, would that mean he would wake up only when a new mission started? The thought gave him a chill, but as his eyelids slid closed, he realized that he _was _tired. A weariness that was set deep into his bones.

Another sigh escaped him. He hadn't felt tired at all in the first few days. He assumed it had something to do with being dead for a while, his body rotting away until they called him back for these sick and twisted games of theirs.

Maybe he fell asleep. Maybe he didn't. All he knew was that it only felt like a few minutes before he heard a noise, insistent above his music.

"Neku…Neku!"

Suddenly, there was air by his ear as she pulled one side of his headphones away.

"Hey, _Neku!"_ She practically screamed in his ear.

His eyes shot open and he glared at the red-haired girl who was smiling down at him, her hands behind her back. He took off his headphones

"You didn't have to yell in my ear," he growled.

She smiled. "But you couldn't hear me. I called you about ten times." She shook her head. "Seriously. That music of yours is going to make you go deaf some day."

"Yeah, so what?" _Then I wouldn't have to deal with people as much_, he thought.

"You don't care if you go deaf?" She put her hands on her hips.

"I'm already dead. I don't think being deaf will change much."

She looked down at the ground. "You're not dead yet," she murmured. "You still have a chance."

Neku didn't say anything. He stood up and brushed himself off, starting to walk down the street. He didn't look back to see if she would follow. She always followed, even when he silently hoped she would lose sight of him so that he would never have to see her again.

"Hey, Neku, wait up!"

He kept walking. He glanced down at his hand, flexing it and seeing his naked palm. He was always suspicious of the missions that had no time limit. Not that he liked the burning fire that pained him as the numbers on his hands decreased, digit by digit, but it was something he was used to. An assurance of a sort. He shivered and put his headphones on again. He didn't worry about the girl beside him. She usually let him brood in silence when she could see that he didn't want to be talked to. Usually.

"Neku, you're such an umbrella man."

Whenever she said something weird, he ignored it, but this time, since it was directed at himself, he was caught off guard. He took off his headphones again.

"I'm a _what?_"

"You're an umbrella man."

He crossed his arms and glared at her, but she still didn't elaborate. "Explain," he ground out.

She put a finger on her chin as she thought. "well, It's like this—umbrellas are used on rainy days, to protect you from getting wet, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, sometimes there are people who carry umbrellas around all the time, even on the sunniest of days, because they want to make sure they're protected from the rain. Even if someone pointed out that it's a beautiful day, he'd just say, "but it _could _rain." And no matter how much you try to convince them otherwise, they won't listen to you. They're too afraid of getting wet to put the umbrella away. Because they're so busy protecting themselves, they can't see the sun shining."

"I still don't see what that has to do with me."

"That's what you're like, Neku. Except instead of the rain, you're protecting yourself from the world. You don't want to face _people,_and so you block them out—with your headphones, with your attitude…everything."

"Yeah, well, if you hadn't noticed, it isn't like the world pays attention to me either. We're just a little, oh, I don't know, _dead._" Neku reached out and flicked a man walking past on the back of the head. The man stopped, looking around in confusion. His stare went right through Neku. When he didn't see anyone, he began walking again uneasily, shaking his head a little. "It doesn't matter if I'm a so-called 'umbrella man.' The world can't see me anyways."

She frowned. "Don't say that. Nothing is final yet. Don't give up."

"Yeah, whatever." Neku started walking again.

"I know you'll understand someday," she murmured.

If he heard her, he didn't respond. He just kept walking. But just for a moment, one moment, he paused and looked up into the sky. The sun shone down brightly on him, and the world continued to move around him, a sea of people constantly churning.

"Umbrella man, huh?"

He hesitated.

And then he took off his headphones.

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><p>Aneko: A simple ending, isn't it? But still, I think I'm pleased with the way it turned out…<p> 


End file.
